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See You At The Races!!! |
| LATE SEASON CHARGE FOR
TAYLOR NETS HIM SECOND by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, Street Stocks and Pony Stocks |
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Ventura, CA -November 17, 2001--Second generation
racer Greg Taylor passed track champion Gary Howard at the white flag
and won the 30 lap season finale for the VRA unwinged 360 sprints
Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. The win made Taylor the winningest
sprint car racer at the track in 2001 as he posted his 7th win
compared to six for Howard and he nearly caught Taylor in the track
money winning list. The $1,000 win boosted Taylor's earnings to
$12,880 while Howard pocketed $13,990. Taylor's late season surge that
saw him win 3 of the last 4 races netted him second in points. Chris
Wakim also got by Howard on that final round for a $750 second with
Howard a $500 third. Taylor only managed a fifth in his heat, won a B
Main to earn a 9th row starting spot for the 30 lapper and then won
with a sterling drive. A track record 43 cars turned out in the
track's featured class. Bradley Prows posted his second feature win of
2001 in the season finale for the street stocks, but fell 40 points
short in his bid to overtake Craig Germanetti for the track title.
Germanetti ran third and won his 3rd straight track championship.
Steve Bulpitt was second in the 20 lapper and Watsonville Speedway's
Steve Ewbank was fourth in the Greg Raap car. It was a big night for
the Bulpitt clan as Scott Bulpitt won his first 20 lap Pony Stock
feature. He finished 11th in track points as Jody Davis won the
championship with a 10th place run. Bryan Rungaitis finished 2nd in
the A Main, but finished 45 points back of Davis.
The large turnout of unwinged sprint cars produced 11 car heat races. With the draw lineup format and only four cars transferring to the 30 lap A Main from each heat, the action was furious. Mike Davis beat Gene Godepski in heat 1. Third ranked point racer Richard McCormick won the second heat over Howard and talented rookie Josh Ford. Taylor ran fifth behind Kenny Brown in this heat. Tony Dighera captured heat 3 with Steven Conrad second over Bill Welch. Wakim won the fourth heat race over John Wright and Mike Knopf. The two B Mains each had 11 starters with just two cars advancing to the 30 lapper. Rob Kershaw beat Ron Bach and Larry Lloyd in the first. Taylor did race to a win in the second over Luis Espinoza and Steve Chuhaloff. The first half of the 30 lap A main saw Howard, Conrad and Wright dueling for the win. Howard eventually built a small lead and a yellow flag fell around midrace. Taylor had been passing cars like crazy, but was still buried in 9th place. The race then went green until a car spun on the final lap. Normal Ventura procedure is to have the field race through the incidents on the final round, but this time a caution flag dropped. Howard had one lapped car to cushion him from new runnerup Taylor on the final green flag, but the lapped car let Taylor go by. Taylor was right on Howard's rear nerf as they took the final green. Howard got into turn 1 too hard and Taylor pulled alongside. Taylor's slide job in turn 4 saw them make contact and Taylor surged ahead at the white flag. Taylor picked off the win over Wakim, Howard, Clark Templeman III, Conrad, Jimmy Crawford, McCormick, Wright, Godepski and Espinoza. Howard won the point title by 2630 points over Taylor. McCormick was 285 points back of Taylor and 205 ahead of Crawford. Wakim was fifth in points and Wright ranked 6th. The street stocks had a 14 car turnout for their season finale. Marty Highland won the first heat over Rick Johnston and Steve Bulpitt. Tom Stephens won heat 2 with Prows second ahead of Ewbank. Prows won the 20 lap feature with Bulpitt second over Germanetti, Ewbank, John Romero, Tracey Pallais and Stephens. The absent Raap still finished 3rd in points and rookie Bulpitt was fourth as he passed the absent Paul Moore. The pony stocks had a 24 car turnout, so they used three heat races and a B Main to determine their 20 car feature field. The heats each advanced 4 cars while 8 more came from the B Main finish. Heat winners were Eric Chambers, Joel Chavez and Tom Burroughs. Trevor Rauch won the B Main over Jack Fullerton. Scott Bulpitt finished 2nd in his heat and won the 20 lap feature ahead of Rungaitis, Andy Frank, Bruce Blackman Jr, B Main winner Rauch, Chambers, Steve Klingberg and Joe Henderson. Burroughs finished 3rd in points. Summary Pony Stock Heat 1-Eric Chambers, Andy Frank, Steve Klingberg, Bryan Rungaitis, Trevor Rauch. Heat 2-Joel Chavez, Jody Davis, Dave Revard, Cliff Ashlock, Jack Fullerton. Heat 3-Tom Burroughs, Scott Bulpitt, Bruce Blackman Jr, Julie Masters, Ben Caswell. B Main-Rauch, Fullerton, Jon Everhart, Joe Henderson, Caswell, Travis Furr, Scott McNichols, Dawn Stutzman, Ed Graham, Tom Stephens Jr. A Main-Bulpitt, Rungaitis, Frank, Blackman, Rauch, Chambers, Klingberg, Henderson, Ashlock, Davis, Everhart, Chavez, Revard, Masters, Caswell, Burroughs, McNichols, Furr, Fullerton, Stutzman. Street Stock Heat 1-Marty Highland, Rick Johnston, Steve Bulpitt, John Romero, Craig Germanetti. Heat 2-Tom Stephens, Bradley Prows, Steve Ewbank, Tracey Pallais, Joe Porche. Main-Prows, Bulpitt, Germanetti, Ewbank, Romero, Pallais, Stephens, Highland, John Hard, Erick Karlsen, Porche, Johnston, Frank Woodward, Mark Heurung. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Mike Davis, Gene Godepski, Ronnie Case, Jimmy Crawford, Larry Lloyd. Heat 2-Richard McCormick, Gary Howard, Josh Ford, Kenny Brown, Greg Taylor. Heat 3-Tony Dighera, Steven Conrad, Bill Welch, Jeff Heaton, Rob Kershaw. Heat 4-Chris Wakim, John Wright, Mike Knopf, Clark Templeman III, Luis Espinoza. 1st B Main-Rob Kershaw, Ron Bach, Lloyd, Ron Wade, Jim Porter, Shawn Kautz, John Geyer, Bil Camarillo, Tim Moon, Richard Terry. 2nd B Main-Taylor, Espinoza, Steve Chuhaloff, Chris Tramel, John Woodward, Oren Prosser Jr, Russell DeBlauw, Jake Ford, Jeff Wilson, Max McNutt. A Main-Taylor, Wakim, Howard, Templeman, Conrad, Crawford, McCormick, Wright, Godepski, Espinoza, Bach, Davis, Brown, Dighera, Case, Heaton, Kershaw, Ford, Welch, Knopf. |
